Topic: Help Stop Human Trafficking in Harrisonburg VA

Help Stop Human Trafficking in Harrisonburg VA

Child sex trafficking in America | Nacole | TEDxRainier

Child sex trafficking is a form of modern day slavery, and according the Department of Justice, human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprise. Nacole, a mother of four, shares her story about her family's painful experience with this issue, the professional help they found and the steps we can take to ensure that this does not continue.

Nacole lives in the southwest with her husband of 20 years and they have 4 children and 3 grandchildren. Nacole works as the Director of a local Preschool. She became an influential advocate fighting to prevent child exploitation in 2010 when her youngest daughter became a victim to this horrible crime. She has helped to get several bills passed in the state of Washington that deal with this crime and worked with Seattle's Mayor to try to prevent the use of online sites to sell children as 'escorts.'

This talk was given November 9, 2013 in Seattle at TEDxRainier, a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Help Stop Human Sex Trafficking in Harrisonburg VA

I am Jim Blair, Director of TrafficStop, Harrisonburg, Va, an organization that fights human sex trafficking. We are producing a music festival that will raise funds to be given to non-profits, educating the public and providing a safe house for rescued girls. We plan to make this festival a yearly event that will draw a lot of attention.

Human sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing tragedies in the world. It is rampant in the United States, Virginia, and even our own city. Just this past year (2015) we have seen arrests and convictions of sex traffickers in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville throughout the news. In our country the sex trafficking business brings in just under $200 billion in revenue every year, and on average the age of the abused victim is 12 years old. TrafficStop exists to increase awareness of this horrific crime through various community events. We need you! Take the pledge, get involved in your community, and join the fight to stop human trafficking.

Help Stop Human Sex Trafficking Event in Harrisonburg VA

WASHINGTON, DC U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) have introduced legislation to combat human trafficking on commercial air flights. The Stop Trafficking on Planes (STOP) Act would require training for certain airline industry employees to recognize and report suspected human trafficking to law enforcement. The legislation builds on the Blue Lightning Initiative, a voluntary training program currently administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation to educate airline personnel to identify human trafficking indicators.

Flight attendants are our eyes in the sky and are uniquely positioned to play a key role in fighting this scourge. By training flight attendants and airline employees to spot and report human trafficking, we can help save victims and bring to justice those committing this heinous crime, said Sen. Warner. This bill will improve coordination and utilize infrastructure already in place to allow our airlines and our law enforcement to better combat human trafficking.

"Flight attendants and other airline employees are on the front lines in the battle against trafficking. They want to help, and we need to arm them with the tools they need to identify and report these heinous crimes," said Sen. Klobuchar. "Trafficking is now the third largest criminal enterprise in the world. As a former prosecutor, Ive seen firsthand the horror and violence women and children suffer as victims of human trafficking. We need to step up efforts to stop trafficking wherever it exists - on land, at sea and in the sky. I look forward to working with Senator Warner and airline workers to advance this important bill.

"Everyone recognizes the horror of human trafficking, but we must turn our outrage into action," stated Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. "We commend Senator Klobuchar and Senator Warner for introducing this legislation that will allow us to stop traffickers from using our skyways as a means to transport innocents to a life of slavery. Trained Flight Attendants can serve as 100,000 eyes in the skies to save lives by recognizing and reporting signs of trafficking. The infrastructure already exists in aviation, we just have to tap into it so law enforcement can achieve justice for the victims."

"Polaris is grateful for the leadership of Senators Klobuchar and Warner to combat human trafficking. We believe this legislation is an important step to ensure that individuals likely to encounter modern slavery in their daily work are trained to identify and respond to the crime appropriately, said Polaris, a leading nonprofit organization working to eradicate human trafficking.

In 2002, then-Gov. Warner announced creation of a statewide Virginia AMBER Alert program to help law enforcement protect and recover missing and exploited children. In 2003, Gov. Warner authorized a federal, state, and local anti-gang strike force, and funded additional state and local prosecutors, as part of a coordinated law enforcement effort to combat a rise in gang-related crimes, including trafficking. As a member of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Warner supported the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, which was signed into law last May, in order to provide incentives for states to have a safe harbor provision to help ensure minors who are sold for sex arent prosecuted as defendants, but are instead treated as victims. The law also helps victims rebuild their lives by using fines and penalties against perpetrators to improve the availability of victim services.

Help Stop Human Trafficking in Harrisonburg VA

I am Jim Blair, Director of TrafficStop, Harrisonburg, Va, an organization that fights human sex trafficking. We are producing a music festival that will raise funds to be given to non-profits, educating the public and providing a safe house for rescued girls. We plan to make this festival a yearly event that will draw a lot of attention.

Human sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing tragedies in the world. It is rampant in the United States, Virginia, and even our own city. Just this past year (2015) we have seen arrests and convictions of sex traffickers in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville throughout the news. In our country the sex trafficking business brings in just under $200 billion in revenue every year, and on average the age of the abused victim is 12 years old. TrafficStop exists to increase awareness of this horrific crime through various community events. We need you! Take the pledge, get involved in your community, and join the fight to stop human trafficking.

Learn move get involved:

TrafficStopVA.com >>>

The problem is girls and young women have been tricked, coerced, forced, assaulted in order to be sex slaves for pimps who profit from the sale of sexual relations with "johns." Trafficking means these young girls are sold to other pimps, many times over state lines. I know about one girl who was brought here from Indiana and forced sexually to earn money every hour of the day. Brothels are here and we think many girls are sex slaves in our area. Ten men were recently arrested for soliciting prostitution.

It is a horrible problem. We can not just sit back, knowing there are girls and women being sexually assaulted locally every day, many times far from home. I have to do something about this. And we have chosen fund raising to help fight sex trafficking.

Our board is in the early stages of developing marketing, such as a web site, posters, all written materials, the design of all and most importantly hiring an expert in producing music festivals. Soon we will be contracting with bands and venues for the summer of 2017.

We have an expense budget of $80,000. We hope to attract 2,000 people. But for the next 3 months, we need $10K to get started. We need this to show sponsors what they will buying - how the event will help them.

We need to get started right away so we can book the talent and venue. We will then be able to care for the girls and start a movement to erase this sickening problem.

I am asking for your donation to help the girls. Help us raise $10000 to move this project forward.